Product Search

On occasion, you may need to search for a product instead of scanning a barcode e.g. if the customer has enquired whether a specific product is in stock. The POS Search feature can be used for a quick search by keywords, or for more detail, the Advanced Search will filter by attributes, stock levels, outlets and more.

If you want to search for a product without creating a sale refer to the Look Up search article.

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Quick Search

If you don't have a code to enter you can use the Search field to search for the product instead. 

To use the search functionality:

1. Click into the Search field
2. Begin typing into the field - this can be part or all of the Product Short Description
3. The Predictive Search box will display and start filtering to the products matching the search terms
4. Use the Down Arrow on the keyboard to select the product > press Enter or click on the product using a mouse
5. The product will be added to the sale

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Advanced Search

To use the Advanced Search feature:

1. Click in the Search field and press Enter (alternatively you can type in a few characters and click Advanced Search at the bottom of the window)
2. Use the filters to search for a product (you can utilise multiple filters at once)
3. Click the Outlet Quantity (underlined) to view incoming Purchase Orders and Transfers
4. Click the Plus symbol (+) to select the Quantity to be added to the sale (you can also click on the number next to the plus symbol and manually type in a value)
5. Continue to search for other products (the quantity will be retained)
6. To clear the search results click Clear Search
7. Click Add Items to finish searching and add the products to the sale

Filters

When the Products, Pricing & Stock Advanced Search is displayed, you can filter on any of the following options:

Field	Description
PLU/Description	Both of these fields appear in one combined field. To search, enter part or all of a product SKU and/or code along with a description e.g. 124007 shirt mambo
Show Disabled	Tick this box to display any Disabled products in Retail Express. This may cause slight performance issues if you have a lot of disabled products within Retail Express.
Product Attributes: Size Colour Brand Type (Product Type)	Used to filter on individual product types. Clicking on the filter will display another window containing all attributes. There are three ways to search for the filter you require: Click in the Search box top-left and begin typing (the results will filter as you type) Use the scroll bar to scroll to the attribute you require Click on the alphabet letter to view products starting with that letter Tip: You can search for Custom Attributes and Season using the Search functionality within a sale and it will return products with matching attributes, however, these attributes do not have their own dedicated search column.
Price	To filter by a price click on the Price box. You will be able to type in the amount at the top, and select a symbol based on your preference: < - equal to or less than the amount entered > - equal to or more than the amount entered = - exactly equal to the amount entered
Outlet	Used to select which outlets the Advanced Search should display stock availability results for.
Avail	Used to filter products based on the Available stock. For example, to search for products that are in stock, a value of > 1 would be selected. < - equal to or less than the amount entered > - equal to or more than the amount entered = - exactly equal to the amount entered
SOH	Used to filter products by the Stock on Hand quantity (including products that have already been allocated to sales). < - equal to or less than the amount entered > - equal to or more than the amount entered = - exactly equal to the amount entered
Qty	Used when adding products to make a sale

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Full Text vs Partial Text searches

When entering information in POS to add a product to the sale (either by scanning or manually typing in the details) the PLU Scan field uses the Prefix Search method, while the Search (used for descriptions and more) uses the Partial Text Search method.

Full Text Search (used by PLU Scan)	Partial Text Search (used by Search)
Searches for an exact match beginning with the start of the code	Searches for an exact match anywhere in the contents - returns a larger number of results compared with Full Text
e.g. searching for 1240 would return the following results: 124001, 124002, 124003 etc	e.g. searching for 1240 would return the following results 124001, 124002, 124003, 5871240, 3871240387

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